Missing
by bionic4ever
Summary: A mission goes terribly wrong for Jaime and Steve, and Jaime is missing. Can Steve find her before it's too late?
1. Chapter 1

**Missing**

Chapter One - 6/30/76 - 1:30pm

Oscar looked at the men seated around him at the conference table and wished they'd all stop arguing and analyzing and just shut their mouths. Time was being wasted, and there really wasn't any to spare. He pulled out his own, private secret weapon - 'the look' - and went around the table without leaving his spot at the head. Jim, Russ, Steve, and Hansen and Jeffries from the NSB: each fell silent when Oscar's eyes said things words couldn't, such as 'Shut up now or I'll wring your neck.' When used judiciously, 'the look' worked every time.

"Ok," Oscar said, without needing to raise his voice, "I think we can all agree that with our nuclear detonation and interception codes in the hands of this particular enemy, we're looking at celebrating the Bicentennial with a nuclear holocaust."

"No pressure there," Steve noted. "Three and a half days to sneak into a Communist bloc country, find the safe and either crack the combo or tear it open in under 60 seconds, before the fail safe blows me into the next world. Piece of cake."

"Goldman, you have an operative who could crack that safe combo in a lot less than 60 seconds," Hansen pointed out. "But I notice she's not here -"

Jeffries let out a snort of laughter. "Yeah - like he'd send Sommers anywhere that she might get a bruise or some dirt under her pretty little fingernails."

"_That's enough!_" Oscar had reached boil-over level. "Talk that kind of garbage on your own time. Jaime Sommers has already been briefed and is waiting in my office. I saw no reason to subject her to another round of the NSB Smutfest!" He looked at his own three men. "Gentlemen, we're done here."

Jim and Russ immediately returned to business as usual while Steve returned with Oscar to his office. "Oscar, I can handle this on my own; you really don't have to send Jaime."

"You uncomfortable working with her, Pal?"

"Of course not. She learned from the best - us. But there's one thing you might've overlooked."

"And what's that?" Oscar asked, stopping before getting onto the elevator to his suite of offices. There was less chance of Jaime overhearing them talking about her when they were two floors down.

"Exactly how are you getting us into the country?"

"Your plane will do a fly-over, and the two of you will parachute...oh."

"Jaime hasn't strapped on a parachute since her accident."

"Steve," Oscar began, his forehead furrowed with worry, "can she do this?"

"The mission itself? Absolutely; no doubt. But jumping from the plane? I don't know."

Oscar was silent for a moment. He knew he was about to ask an awful lot from his friend. "If she freezes at the last minute, would you be capable of grabbing her and pulling her out with you?"

"That's harsh," Steve said quietly, "but not as harsh as nuclear annihilation. Yeah, I think I could. But Oscar - I really can handle this on my own, and we could avoid putting her through that."

"I know you could, but I'd feel better having the two of you backing each other up."

"Then if one of us is shot, you still have another ace in the hole, right?" Steve asked with some irony.

Oscar didn't have to answer; they both knew Steve had hit the nail on the head. "C'mon, Pal - let's go get your partner."

------------

" 'Bout time!" Jaime scolded with a smile, getting up from her seat behind Oscar's desk. "I was starting to think I'd been left behind. Hi, Steve."

"Hi, Jaime."

"Jaime," Oscar began, delicately, "there's something I didn't factor in when I briefed you on this assignment, and I never should've overlooked it."

Jaime looked at Steve. "You don't wanna work together, right?"

"No - that's not it," Oscar told her.

"What, then?"

"Babe, I want you to promise me first that if this makes you uncomfortable or you feel you can't do it -"

"Yeah, yeah. Oscar, we're wasting time. Spit it out!"

"Sweetheart," Steve continued, just to get it over with, "the plane isn't going to land to drop us off."

"Well then, how -? Oh." She turned to her boss. "This one's important, and I do want to go. I'll be ok..."

Steve and Oscar exchanged worried glances. "I'll be fine," she told them, more firmly this time. "When do we leave?"

"There's a chopper on the roof right now, waiting to take you to the plane."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Steve was watching Jaime very closely. She'd flown many times since the accident, but this was her first time up in a smaller plane. She grew slightly pale as they took off, but seemed ok. Her trouble began about half an hour from the drop site, when Steve helped her strap on her parachute. Her body began to tremble and her face turned ghost-white. Steve hadn't told her about Oscar's suggestion that he pull her with him when he jumped, but he'd made sure her pack had an emergency-open auto-chute, just in case she froze and couldn't pull the cord herself. There was no one Steve would've rather worked this mission with - she was that good - but did he have it in himself to force her from the plane?

"Ten minutes to drop zone," the pilot called to them. Jaime was sitting with her head back against the seat, her eyes closed and a white-knuckle grip on the armrest. He took her hand; she was shaking violently now.

"Jaime, we can tell the pilot you're sick, and -"

"I'm gonna do this," she said, without opening her eyes. "I _need_ to do this."

They sat in silence until the pilot called "Three minutes." Steve helped Jaime to her feet and once she had a firm grip on a hand-hold, he opened the hatch.

"One minute!"

Steve squeezed Jaime's hand and smiled at her. He could see she was petrified. "I'll be right behind you, Sweetheart." Jaime nodded wordlessly, staring out the open hatch._ Please, God - keep her safe,_ Steve thought silently.

"Ten seconds...GO!"

Jaime took a huge breath, closed her eyes and stepped through the hatch. Steve stepped out as soon as she'd cleared the plane. His bionic eye zeroed in on Jaime, who appeared to have gone limp in her harness. He held his breath until her auto-chute opened, then let himself free-fall a little longer than usual before pulling his cord. He wanted to hit the ground first, and he did. He stood in the spot Jaime would hit, held out his arms, and caught her as she floated toward him.

Steve still had her in his arms when she startled back to consciousness, instantly fully alert. Her eyes looked directly into Steve's and locked there as he set her gently on terra firma.

"I - did it!" she said triumphantly.

"Sweetheart, you are one of the bravest people I know."

Jaime smiled, enjoying the long gaze into Steve's eyes. "Let's go find our target."

------------

They were able to find the target building quickly and then retired back to a pre-arranged safe house. Jaime felt she could crack the safe in 15 to 20 seconds, so they agreed that if it wasn't open at the 20 second mark, she and Steve would force it open together, grab the papers and hopefully evacuate before the 60 second fail-safe exploded. They each retired to one of the bedrooms to rest a bit, planning to hit the target sometime around midnight.

9 Hours Later

Jaime and Steve stood outside the building they believed held the safe. Instead of taking the time to infiltrate and build a cover, they'd decided to do the job commando-style: bust in, disable any guards, grab the codes and run. Much quicker, but also much more dangerous.

They jumped the fence and Steve peered through a window. "Two guards," he told Jaime. "I'll take care of them, and you head for the safe. It's on the south wall." Jaime nodded, and Steve kicked the back door in, causing all hell to break loose. The piercing scream of an alarm siren filled the air. "Dammit," he said under his breath. At bionic speed, he knocked out both guards and dragged them from the building, then joined Jaime at the safe.

"Will you be able to hear the tumblers through all the racket?"

"I think so." She could, and listened as the first and second tumblers clicked. As she turned the dial for the third number, her blood ran ice cold.

"Steve, get out of the building!"

"Why? What's -"

"_Get out now!_ I'm right behind you."

Believing her, Steve took off running. He turned around at the exact moment the roof blew off the building, followed very quickly by a second, even louder BOOM. Jaime was not right behind him. As the dust settled, Steve felt like his heart had been ripped out and stomped into the dirt. There was no sign of Jaime anywhere.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Steve searched everywhere for Jaime, or for any sign of her, and when he was done, he searched again. One thing he did find was a small box made of lead that appeared to have been buried under a section of the floor torn up in the explosions. He forced it open and found the codes they'd been seeking. Either this was a back-up set or they'd never been in the safe to begin with and he and Jaime had been set up.

Jaime...Steve couldn't accept that she was just - gone. He'd found a total of six guards (or parts thereof), but Jaime? Not a trace. He had searched the surrounding land - further out than any of the debris had landed - and now he realized it was time to call in a search team. Tears clouded his eyes as he headed back to the safe house to make the most difficult phone call of his life.

------------

Oscar was still in his office, where he'd stayed throughout the night. Early in the morning, Rudy had brought donuts and coffee and they'd polished off everything and were now sitting in contemplative silence. It was almost as though they were waiting for something...

When the phone rang, Rudy picked it up. "Oscar Goldman's office."

"Rudy? I - I need Oscar, please."

Either they had a very bad connection, or Steve's voice was shaking. "Hang on, Steve; he's right here." Rudy handed the phone to his friend.

"Steve? Hi," Oscar said, trying to ignore the heavy sense of foreboding that had instantly overtaken him. "The pilot came back alone, so I'm assuming you both made it in alright. How'd Jaime do with the jump? Did you have to pull her out?"

"What?...No, she was a real trooper. Jumped on her own."

"Wonderful!" Oscar exclaimed. "You'll head for the target soon, then?"

"We...already did. Oscar..." Steve tried to push back his emotions at least long enough to explain what had happened.

"Steve, is something wrong? Are you hurt? Is Jaime -"

"She's - gone, Oscar," he said, his voice breaking.

"What do you mean, gone?" Silence. "Steve, _what happened_?" Oscar's hands shook as he held the phone, and Rudy got up and stood and his friend's side, one hand on his shoulder, ready to help in whatever way was needed.

"There was a double fail-safe...or a trap. She told me to go, said she was right behind me...there was an explosion...two explosions..." Steve choked up again, unable to speak, and Oscar felt tears forming in his own eyes. He could barely breath, waiting for Steve to continue.

"I shouldn't have left her, Oscar. I wouldn't have left her, but she said she was coming."

"Steve?"

"She - she was right in the middle of it. As soon as I could, I tried to find her, but she was just - gone."

_Dear God, no!_ Oscar cried inwardly. "Steve," he said, trying to sound calm, "I'll send a search crew right away. They'll be there in an hour or less. I want you to stay put."

"I'm going back. She could be unconscious somewhere, hurt, bleeding. I've gotta find her."

Oscar knew there was no point in arguing. "Be careful, Pal."

"The place is decimated. No guards left to watch out for...there's nothing there...nothing left." Steve hung up the phone.

Oscar sat for a moment, too stunned to move, then he switched to a sort of 'auto-pilot' mode and made the appropriate calls to send in the team. Once his official duties were done, his shoulders slumped and he let his head fall to the desk as his chest heaved with silent but soul-wrenching sobs.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four - 1 hour later

Steve had been back at the site and looking diligently for Jaime for 45 minutes when the OSI search team arrived. He shuddered when he saw they had the cadaver dogs. Dead - Jaime? His mind couldn't wrap around it. She'd been part of his life for longer than Steve could remember. He watched for a few minutes as the team removed the bodies of the guards so the dogs could search more efficiently, then he turned and began his own search - all over again.

------------

In Oscar's office, Rudy was trying to set aside his own grief to care for his friend. Oscar hadn't lifted his head from the desk in the last hour. "She's dead, Rudy, and I killed her," he mumbled without looking up.

"You know that's not true."

"It's my fault. Steve wanted to go alone; he could've handled it. Why did I have to make her go, too?"

"You gave her the option to turn it down, and Jaime chose to go. You can't blame yourself."

Oscar's sobs began again, fresh, still silent, but involving his entire body. "Jaime...I'm so sorry."

Reluctantly, Rudy took a syringe from the pocket of his lab coat and stuck Oscar in the arm.

"Rudy - no - I need to be awake, when they call."

"I'll wake you the second there's any news," the doctor promised, helping him to the sofa. "In the meantime, you'll rest."

Oscar drifted off to sleep still forlornly whispering her name: "Jaime..."

------------

Three hours later, the dogs and their human counterparts had turned up nothing. "It could mean a couple of things," the leader explained to Steve. "She may have found a way out before the first bomb went off, or -"

"Or what?"

"Or - I'm sorry, Colonel - but there may simply be no body left to find. The building was completely destroyed. She was at the center of the explosion, a lot closer than any of the guards, and you saw what kind of shape they were in."

"So - you're giving up?"

"Twelve men and four dogs have combed every millimeter of the area. It's time. I'm truly sorry."

Steve pulled the leader's clipboard from his hands and read the last sentence. _Probable death due to fragmentation/explosion._ Steve dropped the clipboard as though it was on fire and took off blindly into the woods. He ran for miles, but the pain and guilt never lessened. He saw Jaime's face in every leaf, every wildflower and every cloud.

He circled the entire forest and finally came to rest beneath a huge tree at the edge of the debris field. Dejected, exhausted and overcome by grief, Steve gave the giant tree a good, solid kick at the base of its massive trunk and then sank to the ground. Suddenly, he heard a low, soft moan, coming from somewhere over his head. He looked up but saw only the branches and leaves of the mammoth tree. Zeroing in with his eye, Steve saw something that made his heart sing: a foot, dangling over a very large forked branch, wearing Jaime's shoe! Another moan told him it wasn't just her foot - Jaime was alive!

Steve hadn't climbed a tree since childhood, but almost instantly he had climbed over 40 feet in the air. Jaime was caught somehow in the fork of the branch, unconscious and badly bruised, but - yes! - alive. After securing his own footing, he began to gently untangle her from the spot where she'd been trapped for more than five hours. She'd landed with her left arm beneath her and that arm was what had kept her there. It was wedged firmly in the crux of the fork, twisted sideways and obviously badly broken. As he tried to gently dislodge her arm, Jaime began thrashing wildly from the pain and Steve thought she was about to knock them both to the ground. He also heard an ominous 'crack'. In fighting him, fighting the pain, she had made the break even more serious, and her arm remained firmly stuck.

While Steve was gathering his thoughts and regaining his balance, Jaime's eyes fluttered open. "Steve," she said weakly, "what are you doing in my tree?" She wasn't coherent or entirely awake. Within seconds, her eyes drifted closed again.

Steve gazed at her face with deep tenderness. "Sweetheart," he began, knowing she probably couldn't hear him, "how 'bout we both get the hell _out_ of your tree?" He got a firm grip on Jaime with his left (flesh and blood) arm, and with his right, he grabbed the branch just a little further toward the tree than where she was stuck and broke it off. He transferred his hold on Jaime and the branch to his right arm and jumped out and down. His legs acted like shock absorbers when he hit the ground, shielding Jaime from the force of the drop.

Steve knew it would be better for Jaime if he set her down right there, since he was unsure of the extent of her injuries, but he was extremely aware of the fact that they were still in an enemy area. Jostling her as little as possible, he made his way back to the safe house, laid her gently on the bed and picked up the phone.

------------

Oscar didn't stir at the sound of the phone; he was still out from the sedative Rudy had given him. Rudy was about to answer, but Callahan was at her desk and picked it up instead. Seconds later, she appeared at the office door. Her eyes were red-rimmed from spending the last several hours in tears, but she was crying no longer. "Rudy - you're gonna want to get him up. It's Steve, and it's good news!"

This penetrated Oscar's drug induced fog, and he reached the phone even before Rudy. "Steve? What is it?"

"I've got her, Oscar! I've got Jaime!"

Relief flooded Oscar's entire heart and soul. "Is she...ok?"

"She's pretty banged up, might be serious, but she's alive, Oscar!"

Oscar turned to Rudy. "He found her! She's hurt, but she's alive!" To Steve, he said "I'll get a MediVac in the air right away; shouldn't be more than 20 minutes. Great work, Pal!"


	5. Epilogue

Epilogue - 7/4/76 - 8:00pm

It had taken almost a day and a half for Jaime to fully regain consciousness. Steve refused to leave her side. Oscar and Rudy had flown over to join them, arriving long before Jaime was awake. She didn't remember how she wound up in the tree, but it was deduced that the first explosion blew her clear of the building and, while she was still in the air, the force of the second explosion blew her into the tree. The break in her arm was extremely serious, requiring surgery, but that arm being wedged in the branch had saved her from certain death.

Rudy had announced on the morning of the fourth that, although her condition was still very serious, he'd prefer to treat her back in the United States and he was certain she could weather the trip. The four of them flew uneventfully across the Atlantic, landing at an off-shore base, where they wheeled Jaime - on a gurney - onto a helicopter that would take them the rest of the way to Rudy's complex. They were just about to take off, when the chopper rocked back and forth to the sound of 'BOOM, CRACKLE, BOOM - HISSSS.'

With everything they'd been through, Steve assumed for a second they were being fired at, and then it hit him, and he began to laugh. He brushed the hair from Jaime's face, kissed her, then took her hand. "Sweetheart, you awake?"

"MMmm-mm."

"I think you're gonna want to see this."

Jaime opened her eyes and looked groggily out the side window of the chopper at the biggest, most elaborate fireworks display she'd ever seen.

"You know what that means, don't you?" Steve asked lightly. Jaime looked up at him expectantly, listening but still a little too weak to actually answer him. "They're saying 'Welcome back, Jaime'," he told her, kissing her again. " 'Welcome home'."

END


End file.
